Tom Brady looking to end incredible 51-year quarterback curse

Tom Brady is a surefire first-ballot Hall of Famer, both for his work during the regular season and especially in the playoffs. There isn’t much he hasn’t accomplished in his career. The quarterback holds so many records that the NFL record book should probably just be named after him whenever he decides to retire.

However, there is one thing that Brady has never done, and if the Patriots beat the Eagles in Super Bowl LII, he’ll become the first quarterback in NFL history to pull it off: lead the NFL in passing yards AND win the Lombardi trophy in the same year.

Believe it or not, that’s never been done before in the Super Bowl era. I mean, just think about that for a second: Not once have we ever seen a quarterback lead the NFL in passing yards AND win the Super Bowl.

With prolific passers like Peyton Manning, Drew Brees and Brady dominating the NFL over the past 15 years, it seems almost impossible that none of them have led the league in passing the same year they won the Super Bowl, but it’s the truth.

Although Peyton Manning led the league in passing yards a total of three times, he didn’t lead the league in 2006 (Brees led the league with 4,418 yards) or 2015 (Brees led the league with 4,870), the two seasons where he went on to win the Super Bowl.

Speaking of Brees, although he’s led the league in passing a total of seven times, he didn’t lead the league in passing in 2009 when the Saints won the Super Bowl. By they way, if you need some bar trivia for this weekend, ask your friends if they know who led the NFL in passing in 2009 and it will likely stump them for hours (Answer: Matt Schaub).

Having a pass-heavy offense has almost always been a bad thing for teams trying to get to the Super Bowl. The moral of the story here is that defense wins championships or it might be that you have a much better chance to win the Super Bowl if you have a balanced offense.

Since 1966, the NFL’s passing leader has only made it to the big game a total of five times, and they’re 0-5. That list of losing quarterbacks includes Brady, who led the NFL in passing yards in 2007, when the Patriots went 16-0, but ended up losing to the Giants 17-14 in Super Bowl XLII.

For the 2017 season, Brady led the NFL in passing with 4,577 yards. This year actually marked the third time that Brady has led the NFL in passing. Besides 2007 and 2017, the only other time came in 2005 and the Patriots didn’t even make it to the AFC title game that year.

If the Patriots do win the Super Bowl, the other jinx that Brady could end this year is the MVP jinx. Since 2000, zero MVP winners who have gone on to win the Super Bowl. Although we don’t yet if Brady will be named NFL MVP, we will know by Super Bowl Sunday because the award is handed out the night before the game.